Death's Resurrection
by ExtremeFrost
Summary: Given a second chance at life, Shepard is forced to deal with the threat of the Reapers once more after brought back to life by a terrorist organization. Along the way, he struggles against his own past and resurrection in a galaxy where he no longer belongs. Follows the plot of ME2.
1. Chapter I: Exorsus I: Rise

_%% PERSONAL LOG: L523 %%_

_Date: YEAR 2184 CE, UNIVERSAL CYCLE 8, UNIVERSAL TIME 25:34_

_[OUTPUT]..._

_I'm putting this here for a future note. We need to make sure that Shepard is brought back exactly as he was: his personality, his looks, and most importantly his memory. These series of logs will summarize Shepard's background, and his experiences need to completely match up._

_%%_

_Background: Metropolis Station_

_Population: 5.6 Million_

_It is noted that the Alliance seemed to have covered up the incident, citing ruptured fuel lines before practically burying the entire incident. Since there were so few survivors, including Shepard, no one bothered to look into it. The problem with this is that Shepard has no birthplace in any official records. Any indication of anything pointing to the Metropolis Incident was wiped clean. _

_[STATUS REPORT]..._

_Suspected groups are either a rogue faction within Cerberus, which the Illusive Man will have to find, or another group._

_It began with opening airlocks across the station, dumping thousands of people straight into space. Various surveillance also reveal hordes of people running to escape pods, only to be locked in and drained of air. _

_Due to this, it is unknown as to how Shepard survived; most likely his technical skills saved him, but he was found in an empty escape pod approximately four hours after the explosion of the station. There are no sources as to why it did explode, and nothing concrete is there to suggest anything._

_Note: Received data was from tracked down eye witnesses, although none of it detailed any specific involvement, and the stored data from remote surveillance. Most logical conclusion at this point is AI intervention, yet no concrete proof has been obtained. However, only recently [2184 CE, UC 5] that anything detailing the events leading up to the incident was brought to light, besides the few survivors. Hopefully more data available elsewhere._

_%%_

_[LOG COMPLETE]..._

-Private log recovered from Lazarus Station pertaining to the Lazarus Project's subject.

* * *

**_Chapter I: Exorsus I: __Rise_**

_2185 CE_

_Location: Lazarus Station, Unknown Solar System_

The crackling of fire echoed through the halls. Smoke clouded throughout the station. The occasional crash of the structure echoed.

The sound of a Predator firing cut through the ambiance as a figure moved through the smoke, following the crash of a metal object. The scene the figure found himself in was gruesome: bodies practically lined the hallways he moved down, lines of blood along the walls as it pooled under corpses. The white metal of trashed mechs sat on the floor as well, although the white of hydraulic fluid was not as much as the bodies of people. The atmosphere of the entire place was almost overwhelming.

_"You're doing - ..Shepard. Keep heading - " _The figure, Shepard, could barely make out the voice over the static and struggled to hear what was being said. _"Shepard - hear me? I've got - closing in - " _The disembodied voice cut off from him. Since waking up, he appreciated the given help from the voice, although the encouragement was less than inspiring. Wandering the hall, he started to wonder about his current situation once more.

His recent resurrection, while not unwelcome from the grasp of, what was his assumption, death, posed too many questions for him to make a theory about the destruction around him, or even what happened to him. And too many unknowns presented themselves when he woke. His body felt strange, as if it was not his own. And along the way to escape from wherever he was, his movements were greatly exaggerated, like putting too much force into simply walking. Even after, he felt too much momentum to slow down properly, resulting in less than annoying crashes into bulkheads and scattered crates.

While he wished he didn't remember the pain, he did remember the last thing that happened.

_"The Normandy is lost. Going down with the ship won't change that."_

_A sigh._

_"Yeah...okay. Help me up."_

_Fire. Footsteps along a bulkhead._

_He hits the button. The door closes; the figure is sent away. A small relief, but short lived._

_A heat wave. Thrown away from ship._

_Intense pain in his head. Molten metal clipped through the visor. Blind in the right eye. Breathless._

_Final thoughts ease in. Hope they live. Too bad I -_

Shaking his head, he crossed into a small office in the current hallway; a small lab, he figured, from the view through the window. A handful of terminals sat on desks, but they went unnoticed for the moment as Shepard walked to a pair of mechs along the floor. The legs of both were sliced off, and the white metal arms drug their upper frames along the floor in a vain attempt to get away. After a pair of shots ended them, Shepard moved over to one of the terminals and quickly activated it.

_"Progress is slow, but subject shows signs of recovery. Major organs are again functional, and there are signs of rudimentary neurological activity. In an effort to accelerate the process, we've moved from simple organic reconstruction of the subject to bio-synthetic fusion. Initial results show promise," _The implications of the medical log were staggering. _I was dead._ _And now I'm some kind of lab experiment, _he raised his head to look at the near window and found his reflection; azure eyes looking right back at him. Numerous scars randomly lined his face, some larger than others, but they all had an eerie orange glow that disturbed him. His hair looked exactly the same, dark brown shaven down. He gently touched one of the many scars and traced it with a finger. His old scars were there as well. The faint ringed scar along his left cheekbone. _Metropolis. _The lightly distorted skin above his right eyebrow. _Akuze. _The remembrance of those two events along with the scars reminded him that his memories weren't in complete disarray. And with burning nerves upon waking up, he was sure he wasn't dead.

He dropped his hand from his face and turned from his reflection to look for anything of interest in the room aside from the terminals. The search turned almost turned futile, but his eye caught something; a body hunched over in a chair, and the familiar black band of an omni-tool caught his attention. _A Savant. That's pretty expensive for here. Then again, I don't even know where I am._ He quickly made his way to the ringed object and took it off the arm, observing it for anything broke or non-functioning. Verifying the integrity, he slipped it over his left arm and activated it as the orange interface faded into view. Pressing a few keys along the tool, he tried to bring up more medical logs in an attempt to figure out what happened for later reading. After a quick search, he found the ones that dealt with him. Something was off, however, with the time stamps. _These start dating almost...two years ago?_

He turned and found another terminal sitting on the opposite end of the room and desperately activated from the omni-tool command. A male voice rang out of the terminal.

_"The cost of this project was astronomical - over four billion credits so far. But nobody's seemed to care that we've gone over budget,"_ He lost focus of the rest of the medical log as he quickly copied the contents of the medical logs of the station, frantic. Following that, he quickly accessed the station's data stores in an attempt to find more information about him. His luck held as he attempted to access the higher level sections of the data, and he copied the contents detailing his resurrection. Once finished, he walked out of the room and into the adjoining hallway; he started to piece together his memories again.

_Two years..._

The next room blurred slightly as he snapped to attention at the sound of close gunfire. A sharp call of his name and a shake of his head brought him to focus on the nearby voice.

"Shepard? What the hell?" He followed the sound of the voice and gunfire to his left, noting the new voice in the form of a dark-skinned male in a similar set of armor, staring agape at him. He ran over to the other male and ducked next to him against the glass rail, bullets hitting the metal wall nearby as the mechs took aim. "What are you doing here? I thought you were still a work in progress."

Shepard ran a hand through his hair, exasperated. "You tell me." He raised himself slightly from his crouch before picking off the mechs on the other balcony with a trio of precision hits. He stood the rest of the way once the last mech fell, with the other person switching his stare to the fallen mechs. Shepard shook his head, and swapped thermal magazines in the pistol before turning to face the other person with narrowed eyes. "Who are you? And what do you know about what happened to me?"

"The name's Jacob Taylor, security. As for what happened to you? Well, what do you last remember?"

"I just woke up a few minutes ago. Last thing I remember was getting - " The memory is painful to say the least, " - spaced, but did anyone make it out of the Normandy alive?" Whether Jacob noticed the slight pause or not was lost to Shepard, but the answer was a small relief.

"Most of them made it off. Pressley didn't, along with a few of the crew from the lower decks." A small frown made its way onto Shepard. He remembered a bit more as the thoughts swirled around. "But the non-humans - the turian, the asari, and the quarian, - they made it out alive."

"The turian, the asari, and the quarian..." Shepard repeated, barely audible.

* * *

_A pair of turians argued. The left one turned to regard Shepard as the other walked away._

_"Commander Shepard."_

_Chora's Den. _

_"Out of my way humans. I have no quarrel with you." The red-armored bulk pushed past._

_Targets down. The evidence._

_"Commander, take me with you!"_

_Geth. Therum._

_"Hello? Is anyone there?"_

* * *

_They all think I'm dead._

"Well yeah, you've been gone for two years." Not realizing he said that out loud, Shepard was once again stunned at the time lapse. The first time was practically disbelief, but now it slowly sank in. He took a moment to look around, noting the small benches next to him. He walked over to one and eased himself down, looking around at the damaged room before organizing his questions and looking up at the other human. As for the moment, Shepard felt he could believe him.

"Two years? I've been gone that long?" Shepard questioned.

"Yeah, and you were on an operating table for most of it. When I first saw you, you were nothing but meat and tubes. Anywhere else they would have put you in a coffin." Shepard shook his head again with a small sigh before looking at him again.

"I listened to some of the medical reports, but how was I brought brought back? People aren't just brought back to life on a whim."

"I don't know the details; you'll have to ask one of the scientists, but I'm pretty sure you're not a clone." Shepard breathed a sigh of relief at that. He raised his left hand in the air and looked at it, following one of the smaller scars trailing along the back. Shepard watched as the other human held down a hand to him. "Look, I know this is a lot to take in, but we can't waste too much time. We need to get to the shuttles. Once we're clear I'll gladly answer the rest of your questions. Now come on, we need to get out of here." Shepard grabbed the hand and it pulled him up, nodding.

* * *

Shepard couldn't help but wondering as he watched the stars move by through the window, still tense with a pair of Cerberus operatives in the cockpit. A whole two years passed since his supposed - not supposed, real - death, and while he wasn't too pleased about who brought him back, he couldn't help but wondering why they did it. The tech that was used to put him back together certainly didn't allay his concerns about Cerberus either, as the twisted experiments two years ago showed just how far they would go to control others. Even more so, just the thought of the tech used put himself into question. _Am I even me anymore?_

_When the Lazarus Project's director, Miranda, began explaining the extent of what was used, he initially accepted the small amount of tech. But the initial, almost wishful, thought of his body just needed a quick jump-start and small implants were swept away like a typhoon as she expanded._

_"You don't get it, Commander," Miranda said, her patience wearing down, "This wasn't just a pick-me-up at a bar. It wasn't just a shock to your heart and getting heated up. Your organs were shredded and in pieces, your brain was completely crystallized from space, and not to even mention the extent of shattered bones and skin from the reentry of a planet's atmosphere."_

_"While I hate to add to the bad news, Commander," Jacob broke him out of his reverie. "Project Lazarus? All of this tech? This wasn't the Alliance or the Council. The group who put you back together was Cerberus." On one hand, Shepard was grateful for Jacob's bluntness in the situation._

_He tilted his head to watch the other two on the other side of the shuttle, and fixed Miranda with a dark look. "You know, at this point I'm starting to wish I was still dead rather than be forced Cerberus pawn. I would ask if you this was a joke but I doubt anyone would have a twisted sense of humor like that," He growled. "Give me a reason I don't turn this into an execution and take this shuttle somewhere else." Shepard's first reaction to both at the mention of Cerberus almost ended with a bullet, as it mostly did two years ago, but remembered that she was the one who practically resurrected him in addition to getting him out, along with Jacob getting him out. The least he could do for them is give them the chance to speak._

"_What do you mean 'forced', Shepard?" Miranda responded. "You were brought back from the dead just as you were. The only tech used was to keep you alive. And we only need you to speak with the Illusive Man, and then he'll take it from there. If you disagree, I assume he'll let you go." Shepard clenched his fists, bringing them down against the cushions on the seat. _

"_Don't bullshit me, I've seen exactly what lengths Cerberus go to for control people," he snarled at her, "Not to mention what happens to people who happen to disagree with Cerberus's viewpoint. Go ask Admiral Kahoku about that. Oh wait, he's dead." He darkly laughed, vaguely gesturing around. "Or go ask Toombs about experimenting when he has thresher maw acid injected into his veins." He noted with grim satisfaction at the sight of the two operatives visibly flinching at his outburst._

"_Shepard, that - "_

_"Look Shepard, I understand," Shepard switched his view from Miranda to meet Jacob, waiting for him to continue as he watched the darker man raise his hands in a placatory gesture. "Cerberus has been called terrorists a lot, and with good reason, believe me," Miranda's face tightened and she turned to watch Jacob as well, but he continued on. "But right now we're trying to get you out of here." He shot a look at Miranda before looking back at Shepard. "Miranda was the head of the project that brought you back as well. So at least go with us for now." Shepard felt his hands relaxing slightly, easing up from the clenched fists that were practically buried into the seat._

_"Commander, we brought you back for a reason. The least you can do is come with us to meet the Illusive Man, and he'll explain everything."_

_"Fine, but as soon as we're clear from here and done with whatever he has to say, I'm gone." She watched him a little more, mouth in a thin line, but minutely nodded before standing and walking to the cockpit of the shuttle. Jacob simply shrugged his shoulders at Shepard before he turned and joined her up front, leaving Shepard alone in the passenger area. _

Shepard let his head ease back on the seat before pulling up his new omni-tool, keeping it discreet from the other two. Most of the files he copied were encrypted, and as he didn't have too much time at the moment to deal with it; he simply filed through the stored data, looking for any tracking or tracing programs that are running. He doubted Cerberus would take too kindly to stealing their medical data, especially along with a high-end omni-tool. Satisfied that the tool was no longer being traced, he started looking through the extranet news over the past two years. _I guess I get to get used to all of these new changes. _He sighed. _What even about the Reapers?_ While he doubted the two in the cockpit would revive him just to shoot him, he still felt uneasy while shutting down the omni-tool and falling back into memories, view fading into the stars.

Among with the torrent of thought, he couldn't help but bitterly wonder what it'll be like to be a ghost in a new galaxy.

* * *

_2183 CE_

_Location: Normandy, Theseus System, En Route to the Citadel_

Shepard stood in the cargo bay at the workstation in the corner, lights dimmed as it was just the start of third shift. Silence made its through the Normandy's lower deck, broken by the occasional metal scrape from Shepard's work. A pile of metal devices littered the table around him, and his focus remained on a small elliptical device that floated a few inches off the surface. His omni-tool casted an orange glow over the area, and the quiet was relaxing after the latest mission.

Therum turned into a battle-zone instead of the quick extraction that was planned, but went relatively smooth nonetheless. In addition, it got him to evaluate the new members of the ground team on their tactical skills. While he wasn't solely testing their skills in general, he did need to test them in a live combat exercise. At the end, he left with a positive outlook on all of them. And while some of them were unsure about bringing Matriarch Benezia's daughter on board, he himself doubted she was working for Saren, especially after they sent a Krogan and a battalion of geth to take her.

Focusing back, he typed a few commands onto his lit omni-tool. In response, the drone started a diagnostic run. A few different colored lights lit up along the body, turned a full circle before stopping and started quietly beeping. A small smile made it's way to him. Working tech always got to him. Lost in thought, he jumped when it turned off to the side while it lit up with a faint red light. He looked up to see where the drone was turned and found himself looking at a familiar hooded figure looking at him a few feet away, faint silver eyes watching him from the opposite end of the personnel lockers. It seemed her eyes reflected even the small amount of light over the work table.

He nodded once with a faint smile. "Hello Tali. I take it you just finished up with your shift in Engineering?"

"Yes, I did." Her hands started entwining with each other at her waist before she continued. "Um, what are you doing Commander? I-if I can ask, I mean..." She trailed off.

He faintly smiled. _Probably still wary about not upsetting the 'captain'. _"It's fine Tali, you can ask. Here, look." He tilted his head to the side, gesturing to the floating turret. She slowly moved at first, before gaining confidence and walked over to the work table and taking a look at the floating drone. "Just working on something I've worked on for awhile. Mobile turret. Autonomous. Definitely not as powerful as an assault rifle, but shoots similar to small arms fire. Just adding some more touches to it before we get back to the Citadel." He looked down at his omni-tool for details of the turret before looking up again. "If you were going to your sleeping pod, I won't keep you."

"No, I'm not really tired right now." She said, shaking her head. "I couldn't go to sleep if I wanted." He turned off his omni-tool and placed one of the electronic devices back on the table.

"Something wrong?" He asked, turning to look at her. She avoided his gaze, as if she was embarrassed.

"How do you sleep on this ship? It's so quiet..." She whispered.

"The silence wakes you up?" She looked back at him and nodded.

"Aboard the flotilla, silence is the last thing you want to hear. It usually means something essential to the ship broke down." She nervously wrung her hands as she looked down at the drone. "You probably don't want to here about the flotilla anyway..." She trailed off.

"Honestly?" He watched as she looked up, feeling a faint smile creep on his lips and he continued. "I think it's kinda interesting to hear about it. Never got to learn much about the Quarian flotilla, not to mention the tech they use on a daily basis." He shrugged, pausing for a moment. "If you don't mind my ignorance, what's it like to live like that?"

He watched as she stayed silent, probably wondering what to tell him, or weighing if he was genuinely curious. After a few moments, she talked. "It's...nice. Since mostly everyone lives aboard the flotilla and resources are strained, we rely on each other to get things done. Everyone has a job to do to make living easier. It feels like everyone is one large family." He watched her movements, seeming eager now to explain the details of the flotilla, but once she finished her hands started to wring again. "But because of living with the strained resources, other species seem to look down on us as vagrants and thieves. _Bosh'tets..._" Her head snapped up to look at him before her hands wrung faster. "Sorry."

For once in a long time, Shepard felt a genuine laugh at her constant apologies and she looked at him strangely, almost dejected. "You need to stop apologizing for once. You didn't do anything wrong. Although I can see where the misunderstanding comes from," he continued, noting the narrowing of her eyes, "it doesn't mean they aren't racists. Just ignore them. On that note, also tell me if anyone brings something like that up to you." He shook his head. "If there's one thing I won't tolerate, it's disrespect and blatant racism." She nodded and her hand movements finally stopped, looking relaxed.

He watched as she look around before resting on the pile of electronics along the table, almost longingly. "Now, if you want, you can help me with this." He gestured to the device. It didn't escape his gaze that Tali visibly stiffened.

"Are you sure Commander? I mean, it's your project and - "

"Really, it's fine." She paused for a moment, before faintly nodding. "Besides, I need to make sure the geth technician is up to par." He quipped. After Therum and the latest set of missions on their way back to the Citadel, he could tell that getting her to ease up usually involved poking at her technical skills. Not that he doubted them. He held up his omni-tool before transferring some of the schematics to hers, lighting up in response to the transfer. "If you want to start, you can help me swap this single mass accelerator for a pair of them, if you think you can keep up." She didn't move, but she finally relaxed after a moment.

She reached over to one of the accelerators before getting to work, but not before responding back to him with narrowed eyes. "Questioning my abilities, Commander?" It was strange turn, he noted, that for someone who gets as worked up and protective as they do about her people, she can completely turn around and make a sharp comment right after.

"Maybe." He responded, flashing a small smile. At least she was starting to loosen up. The pair of them began work on the turret; Shepard working on the diagnostics and targeting details while Tali took her time on the weapon system. In the cargo bay, the only sounds were the quiet work of the duo and the occasional beep of the turret's diagnostics.

And for once in his life, he enjoyed the company of his current team, and wondered what the future will be.

* * *

_**A/N:**_

_This is my take on the game. While the game did explore certain concepts, some of them didn't feel developed enough. One of them being Shepard's resurrection._

_No guarantees about updates, but I'll continue if people enjoy it enough. Also let me know about anything that seems off._


	2. Chapter I: Exorsus II: Ghost

_"Shepard? He's probably one of the best combat infiltrators we have right now. I haven't seen a thing that kid can't do with tech. Reacts quickly to the situation and even a great tactician. On top of that, he's an excellent shot with a sniper rifle; haven't seen him miss. His weapon selection is unique too; never seen anyone use two pistols instead of rifles. He's even a natural leader._

_Although the topic of himself instead of talents? He's a paradox. I mean he's polite with everyone he talks with. Yet outside of missions, I never see him approach to talk to anyone. Never with anyone except for his tech, or that drone he keeps around. Quiet. You wouldn't even know it was Shepard. There's something keeping him away, and it's eating at him."_

-Admiral Anderson on topic about John Shepard, N7 program recommandation; _2177 CE_

* * *

_**Exorsus II: Ghost**_

_2185 CE_

_Location: Freedom's Progress, Terminus Systems_

A pair of silver eyes searched the frozen landscape, view filtered through a tinted visor. Cold seeped slowly through the fiber of the suit. A soft wind played at the audio. Points of interest lighting up along the inside of the visor; data scrolling along in streams, ranging from colony information to shuttle status. The omni-tool lit up along her arm, soft beeps confirming the inputted commands as the data shifted its form. The unending input of data would be disorientating to anyone else, but not to her. It became second nature; life in a suit with technology as a close friend. A certain piece of tech, rather.

Data reports fed through the streams, informing the status of the team. She watched them update, taking note at the lack of progress in finding Veetor'Nara, a young quarian located at the direct center of a major human abduction: the entire colony of almost one million colonists had simply disappeared. Noting at her current situation, her mind began to wander at the surroundings while her team rallied to her location, lost in thought. Her thoughts drifted to what project her father was working on. What project that never allowed him any time to show that he even cared about his daughter.

Her father had shown barely any emotion at her return to the Quarian Flotilla, nor at the vast amount of information she had acquired about the geth to bring to her new captain; he simply acknowledged it's importance. No hugs or other fatherly effects of affection. Maybe he did care, but he never outwardly showed it. No late discussion about how her time aboard the Normandy had been. He simply worked_,_ and left to assist a new project he had started up. And as she received her new shipname, still reeling from the incident with the _Normandy, _she boarded her new ship and got to know the crew. Even so, she couldn't help but feel almost _lost._

"Ma'am. No sign of anything in the immediate area. No sign of Veetor either." She almost jumped at the gruff voice against the wind, but held it in as she turned to face the speaker; one of the soldiers, Prazza. Personally, she knew that he didn't fully trust her. In fact, all of them seemed that way. Being decided the leader and commander of various expeditions was met with silent rough treatment due to her age; she didn't carry the same experience in their eyes, unfit for command.

She mentally cursed herself for fading into thought before her voice found its edge again. "Then gather the team and I'll lead further into the compound," She responded. She was met with a nod from the quarian and watched as he left towards a nearby prefab. She turned back to the scenic view in front of her and watched the gentle snowfall. Her omni-tool beeped, a new object lighting up along it as it detailed one of the sensors inside her helmet.

Prior to her installation to Freedom's Progress, her suit and it's sensors had been upgraded with various improvements for her missions. It was mostly for Geth dropship and the like, but it applied well enough to other objects with electrical emissions after a little bit of personal improvement.

_[INFO]_

_::Personnel Shuttle_

_Class:UT-47 Kodiak Drop Shuttle_

_ID:Cerberus [97.8% Accuracy]_

_Occupants: Unknown_

_Destination Vector: Landing Zone Within Freedom's Progress [74.5%]_

_Arrival Time at Current Speed: Six standard minutes_

_[END]_

She read through the quick report, noticing the ID of the shuttle. _Cerberus._ She growled, anger fuming from her at their impeccible timing of what was supposed to be simple recon mission. _Simple. Find Veetor and leave._ At that time her team also had arrived back to her location, and she turned to them to alert them of their new situation.

"The mission has changed. I just received notice of a Cerberus shuttle making its way towards the colony. We'll have to be quick now and get Veetor out before Cerberus does." She commanded. "If they get in the way, take them down. I'll also try to slow them down and give you time." They nodded as she turned to face the prefab exit, forming a new plan as they headed for the nearby cargo doors to the next loading bay. They made their way out, and as her team readied their weapons for the confrontation with Cerberus, she watched as the snow fell in silence; its only companion the gentle breeze. No audible sound, no hum of the distant shuttle.

Whenever Cerberus got here, she would be ready.

* * *

_Cerberus shuttle, En Route to Freedom's Progress_

"Approaching the LZ in five minutes, Commander."

The announcement of the imminent landing brought Shepard to his senses, fighting a frown at the male operative poking his head around the small wall between the cockpit and the passenger area. He didn't say anything, merely nodding to the man before turning back to the window. He noticed Jacob watching for a few more moments before he turned back into the cockpit. Sighing once again at the strange turn of events, Shepard rubbed his face with a metal hand.

After the escape from Lazarus Station and their arrival at a new one, Shepard's frustration at everything grew once again. His talk with the Illusive Man put his dislike for Cerberus on the back-burner, listening to the benefactor and his mention of the Reapers. How _entire_ human colonies were suddenly disappearing with no trace of anyone left. How the Council and the Alliance dismissed the entire incident with the Reaper that landed right on their doorstep. And the only group doing anything was Cerberus itself.

While the conclusion of jumping from human colonies disappearing to Reapers was a rather large jump, Shepard knew the threat of the Reapers was a real issue, no matter what the Council would dismiss it as; even if the Illusive Man wanted him as a tool to find out that connection. Surprisingly Shepard had even stated that if there was nothing to find that their cooperation would end, the Illusive Man had agreed, but not before insisting to Shepard about checking the colony. Now, he found himself once again in the shuttle with Cerberus, on his way to the colony of Freedom's Progress in the Terminus Systems.

Now, watching out the window, his thoughts once again drifted to the tech that was supposedly implanted for his benefit. While he did not doubt that Cerberus would go to the ends they claim to bring him back, he couldn't help but wonder what _extra_ items that the put in. Currently, he didn't feel any impulse towards any of the members other than intense dislike, so control chips seemed to be a low priority. While Shepard wanted to look at the cache of medical data he obtained. the encryption looked heavy so it put a time constraint on when he could find out its details; time he didn't have at the moment, and especially not here with his 'team' practically watching over his shoulder. Not to mention whether the data was even intact aboard the chaos.

He simply didn't have the time he wanted to find answers. Not to mention what he even would do once this mission was complete. The Alliance declared him dead, the Council most likely stripped him of Spectre status on his death, and everyone he knew would have moved on with their lives.

He felt a quick jolt pull through the shuttle, most likely signalling the final approach vector to the landing zone. At that, Shepard paid attention once again to his surroundings, watching the ground slowly coming into view. As far as Shepard could see, snow lined the surface of the colony. The only visible shades other than the snow white were the matted colors of the prefab walls and the darkened sky. Red service lights dotted the sky, signalling safe landing for travelers.

Moving slightly towards the edge of his seat, he checked his weapons in preparation, courtesy of the armory of the docking station they had flew from. _Funny, the military had taught me to never pull out and check weapons aboard a shuttle, for a simple malfunction could hit or fatally would a nearby member,_ he wryly unholsted the two Predator pistols from his waist, giving them a once over before checking their heat sinks and putting them back on their respective magnetic clamps. He also looked over his new armor, courtesy of Cerberus as well, since it was a habit that he regularly performed before arriving at a drop zone.

The jet-black armor faintly reflected the light of the shuttle, with the curves of the shoulder armor plating tapering to a short, sharp edge over his shoulder. Small lines of blue crossed his chest, distinct from the black metal, and the 'N7' insignia stamped upon the breastplate. His helmet sat next to him, the same dark metal reflecting off it, and the visor a faint blue tint as well. The result of the dark armor gave him a dangerous look, only enhanced by the sight of the two pistols at his sides and the large Mantis rifle collapsed at his back. _They sure go a long way to get me to cooperate, _he noted.

"We're here, Commander." Miranda's voice was accompanied by a shutter through the shuttle, finally at the drop point of the colony. Satisfied with the state of his weapons and armor, he reached next to him to pick up his helmet and put it on, sealing the internal environment with a small hiss. He watched as the two filed out of the cockpit before standing in the passenger area, still in the same uniforms he first saw them in. He also made sure to use the two efficiently.

While the two had overlapped with the essence of biotics, Jacob was geared more for direct assault, assisted by the Avenger rifle he carried. Miranda on the other hand was suited more for a ranged offensive, evident by her light armament of a pistol and the small machine pistol, not to mention her rather thin suit. Shepard was torn between demanding she get decent set of armor due to her presence in his revival and requirement for the mission, or leaving it alone in the hopes she got incapacitated with her dedication to Cerberus. In the end his opinion didn't matter when she insisted that she didn't need or want armor.

_Your funeral, _he recalled.

He shifted his stance before leaning over to the shuttle hatch and opening it, letting the first taste of the cold drift in as the door lifted skyward.

"Like I said earlier, we're looking for anything, any _significant_ proof to show what happened here." He explained, emphasizing 'significant'. He watched long enough for the pair to nod at him before he turned away and hoped down onto the frozen concrete, walking a few steps away and activating his omni-tool. He pinged the surrounding area with it for a local map, taking the time to look around at his surroundings.

The snowfall made it impossible to see anything past a few hundred feet; the only visible objects in the background were the muted red lights flashing against the gray sky. The small buildings lined across the landing zone, ending at the large doors of a cargo bay; the only way through to the doors was funneled into the surrounding line of prefabs. They sat at various heights, supported by the metal struts attached to the ground about twenty feet down. Hearing the crunch of snow behind him, he closed his omni-tool and let it ping the area for a detailed map before leading the two towards the nearby prefab. Leading up the steps, the doors opened with a swish before they walked through.

The inside was an eerie view. Half-eaten plates of food ringed the dining tables. Cups of coffee only partially finished. Extranet terminals still flickering with a light. If Shepard hadn't know that the colony was utterly empty, he would have thought he stumbled into an occupied home.

"It looks like everyone just walked out in the middle of dinner," Jacob commented nearby, observing the still warm food.

They continued on through the line of buildings, ending up back outside as a pair of steps lined down to the cargo doors. Shepard could see the shuttle from here, distanced through the height difference and the large gap between. They met at the entrance of the cargo bay, waiting for the Commander to open them. Thankfully, the security protocols of the colony haven't advanced too much from what he was accustomed to. A few seconds of filtering through the encryption was rewarded by the metal grinding of the doors slowly opening.

"Here's what we have," He pointed to their location with his free hand, fielding the range to a few klicks. "Past this loading bay is where the prefabs start to split off. Gathering what I can from unencrypted data here, it branches into the administrative department of the colony. This is where we'll split off - " He stopped as his omni-tool beeped, bringing up small lights along the view that could only signal an emergency thanks to his time aboard the shuttles. His fingers danced across the omni-tool, attempting to pin down what was happening. It almost looked like someone was trying to hack -

"Contacts!" Shepard snapped his head to the direction of Jacob's voice and ran over to him, seeing what he had mentioned. Jacob was crouched down at a corner, angled between a pair of familiar white mechs across the gap between prefabs, and another five making their way down to their position next to them. Shepard ran over to the man and took cover, pulling his Mantis off his back as his shields sparked as a few hits made their mark. He popped up and took a clean hit at a mech across the chasm as Jacob punched a few holes into the incoming mechs. Taking down the other one with a quick hit, Shepard put away the Mantis as he turned back to his omni-tool to stop whatever was happening, but whoever was doing it had simply _stopped._ He quickly routed through it, looking for anything out of the ordinary. His search turned futile, and was cut off from further checking by the spark of his shields. Shepard turned to the incoming mechs and pulled off a single pistol before adding to Miranda and Jacob's fire. Jacob's rifle punched holes into some of the nearby targets as Miranda's machine pistol silenced the fallen ones. As the last mech fell, a nearby prefab door ahead opened as another four mechs stalked out.

"More from the prefab," Shepard said, taking aim at one of the newer arrivals. "Jacob, see if you can't knock some over!" Jacob nodded and a blue glow faded around him as he pushed a mech into the others and joined Miranda further up. Shepard pulled up his omni-tool and continued his search, remembering his skills as he routed into the omni-tool's data usage. Finding something off, he went to the source when he found something: a tracking program hidden within the omni-tool's basic operating functions. It was well hidden and expertly done; an amateur would simply crash the tool completely, and this was done subtly. It wasn't exactly a textbook hack either, and it proved someone was here. Satisfied, he hacked into one of the mechs, attempting to overload one of the power supplies.

"We're not alone here, besides the mechs," He yelled over the din for the gunfire, "Someone tried to hack my omni-tool and track us. Probably got to yours as well."

Before he could continue, he was interrupted as a whine took to the air followed by a beep from his omni-tool, and looked around to find the source. And he found it at the same time the other two did as well.

A trio of new drones were in the air and hovered directly to their location, whine emitting from the now glowing ports on the underside and aiming at none of them, but rather lower. _Wait, why is it..._ It took Shepard a moment, but he realized what they were doing: targeting the supports of the walkway.

"Oh for..." He cut off as he turned to move away from the structure, but the drones fired off a pair of rockets into the pillars before he could get anywhere. They exploded as they contacted, leaving Shepard's ears ringing with their closeness and the floor began to waver. He scrambled up ahead to where Miranda and Jacob, who were now safely on solid ground near the next door, firing at the drones. A large metal _creak _filled the air as the floor tilted dangerously downward, leaving Shepard's bulk to come crashing to the floor and sliding down the grating. He desperately moved to grab onto something, but efforts proved futile as the top ripped itself from the rest of the structure, leaving Shepard helpless as he fell down the remaining distance.

With a crash they met the corner of the wall, and Shepard turned as the grating threw him off and into a stream of water, ice breaking as he fell through the surface of the water and his back twitch in pain. The grating caught itself upright along the wall, luckly refusing to turn the remaining distance and over top of Shepard.

_Cold._

Grateful he put his helmet on, he swam up and broke the surface of the water, grabbing onto the nearby ledge and hoisted himself up. A sharp pain flared in his ribs, and he winced as he made it out of the water. Now on solid ground, he dropped down and took a look up from where he fell: a good fifty feet where he could see Miranda and Jacob peering over the side at him.

"Are you alright, Commander?" Miranda shouted.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You two go on ahead, I'll see if I can't find a way around." He yelled back up to them.

"Affirmative Commander. Watch your back." Jacob responded, grabbing Miranda as they disappeared out of sight and further down the walkway. He looked back down to the fallen floor.

_Judging from the way the other mechs acted, there is no way those rocket drones would be intelligent enough to make a move like that. Not to mention someone wanted to track us. _Either way, anger took over as he pulled the two pistols off his sides, moving off to confront whoever it was.

It was a game of cat and mouse, and Shepard knew his opponent wasn't easy prey.

* * *

It had been two years ago, she thought, that she had wanted some kind of adventure to sweep her off her feet and carry her through the corridors of the galaxy. A worthy adventure in the form of a storybook fairy-tale. She had been naive at the beginning of her Pilgrimage, and the reward was in the form of polonium bullets cutting through her suit. A gift from the galaxy for her gall to extract a geth memory core. Moving from the wards to the clinic and then finally to Fist, she given information in exchange for protection. And her salvation from certain death was in the form of her fairy-tale wish as her three captors swiftly fell to the human's group. And she didn't waste her chance for an adventure, but it had been a serious issue of dealing with a rogue Spectre. It wasn't the fantasy story either. No ancient knight of a technological age. Morality was in shades of gray instead of black and white. Kill a few to save more over there. Save hostages and let a terrorist free so he can continue once again or condemn them, and no one to judge a Spectre for his choices that crossed a line.

And the stories always depicted the knight as the selfless person, ready to take any problem someone had and fix it for them. Not because of ulterior motives, but because it was the right thing to do. And their personality would always be shown as caring and outgoing, all too eager to make the world a better place. The problem was it wasn't apparent to her with Shepard when the adventure began; he never outwardly displayed outward emotion in extravagance except anger at whatever scheme that was at play to end all of their lives, as if something was holding him back from caring _too much._ A small pull of the lips showed amusement. The occasional smart remark would ease tension in the air. He did seem to have a hero-complex however, but she never saw satisfaction on his face at the thanks he received. A small, barely noticeable frown sat on his face that wouldn't have been observed by anyone other than her under constant scrutiny of him.

Of course her feelings didn't matter anymore anyway: the happy ending that never came to be. No heroine getting the hero and living happily ever after. The story abruptly died with the _Normandy _in a bittersweet ending_; _the destruction of Sovereign, the remaining crew and her only true friends she made scattered across the galaxy, and the regretful loss of a person that never knew her feelings no matter if they were reciprocated or not.

Now, she wished she could go back to her innocent days, worrying about whether Shepard had returned her feelings instead of now where she was busy coordinating a team and attempting to take the new Cerberus arrivals out. And she watched the figure curiously, presumably the leader.

Even in armor, the average human would have to deal with a variety of crushed and broken bones from falling from that height, but the figure simply pulled himself out of the water and stood up to talk to the others above, shrugging off the fall. She also was curious at how the figure could have managed to track her tracing program; she was never one to be sloppy or leave a trail in her work. Only one person she had ever found was as good as her in infiltration.

_No, he's dead._ She violently squashed the thought. She had changed over those two years: She had a team to lead and a quarian to find, and she couldn't leave herself be vulnerable by falling into her feelings two years ago. She needed to be cold, to prove to her team that she could lead them.

Silently watching the black figure, she signaled to her team on her omni-tool that they should move ahead, and that she'll feed them information about Cerberus as they continue their search. At least the other two still had trackers on them: the hail of gunfire provided a decent distraction. Yet as she finished the message and looked down at the figure walking away to a set of stairs and turning away, she couldn't help but noting the strangely familiar way he carried the pair of pistols in his hands.

_Who are you?_

Shaking her head, she pulled a small device from a waist pocket before activating it with her omni-tool. It lit up, a small blue light emitting from it as it hovered off the floor. The elliptical object hovered off the ground, producing a small light before turning to follow her. Looking at the drone, she couldn't help but feel the ghost of her past once again helping her as she followed the leader of the group, heading through the shadows above.

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry about the delay, I'll try to update it a bit sooner than that. Also, about the length: I plan to make chapters longer after this one, I just wanted to push this out. Also fixed up the first part, grammar edits and such. Nothing big.

I also understand that everything seems to be in a weird place with this story. I'll try to flesh it out better.

Again, let me know how this is going so far.


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